Battle of the battle buses: Rule Britannia on display

This essay recounts one of history’s stranger examples of patriotic display. Throughout 1916 and 1917, British serviceman Captain A.C. Bromhead undertook a propaganda tour of Russia. Travelling aboard a mobile cinema (or ‘cine-motor’), Bromhead planned to show films across the country to rally Russians to the British cause in the First World War. But, with Russia on the brink of revolution, events would quickly unravel. From audiences with the tsar to chance meetings with Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, Bromhead’s exploits were extensive, unusual and, at times, hair-raising.